A BIG operation will be launched next week to educate youngsters at a blaze-hit school.

Children still away from Greenside Infant and Nursery School at Almondbury after it was gutted by fire will be taught at Lowerhouses until their new classrooms are ready.

The Greenside school, in Fernside Avenue, has been closed since September 13, when a fierce blaze started in a corridor and spread through the building.

More than 100 teachers and children fled the building just after morning assembly. It took more than 50 firefighters to stop the flames.

At a meeting at neighbouring Almondbury High School yesterday, Greenside headteacher Sarah Armitage told worried parents their children would be taught at the Early Years Unit in Lowerhouses J and I School from October 4.

The eldest will go Monday to Wednesday and the reception classes will attend for the rest of the week.

It is hoped new mobile classrooms will be ready to use at the Greenside school site by November 1.

But Mrs Armitage, who has been head for 10 years, said it will take up to 10 months to rebuild and refurbish the school.

She added: "The children will be taken on buses to Lowerhouses and then back each day by 3.15pm.

"By November 1 the temporary classrooms should be on the site and we will move in to them.

"We are going to be in them for nine or 10 months, but all the classrooms will be properly equipped.

"There has been a lot of support from parents."

Outside the wrecked school after the meeting, one parent, who asked not to be named, was worried about her child having to get a bus to Lowerhouses.

She said: "It is not the school's fault and they are doing everything to get the kids back. But I am worried.

"I am sure there will be teachers on the bus there and back. But I would rather my son was just up the road here and not going all the way to Lowerhouses."

Mrs Armitage said she understood parents' fears and would let them decide whether to send their children to Lowerhouses.

Letters are being sent out to parents today, telling them of the plans.